Mark's Market Talk for December 1, 2025

The grain markets fared ok during last week’s short holiday trade. Corn was 10 cents higher, and beans were up 18 cents. There was export sales reported for both corn and beans. China was the big, probably the only bean buyer and they are probably reluctant at that since Brazilian beans are about a dollar cheaper. It will be interesting to see if China fulfills their obligations since our beans are staying higher. However, should they start to back off, we need to raise the ante on their products coming into our country. Their economy depends on the US buying a large share of what they produce. Without us the average Chinese worker will have trouble keeping a job. The USDA continues to release backed up reports a week at a time. At this rate it might be Easter before they catch up. So far, these reports have not really moved the market. The next market moving report will be the January WASDE report when it is expected they will make several adjustments on both sides of the equation. However, the ending stocks for corn and beans will probably not change much if any. Not sure what you call the math that you go backwards with. It seems they sometimes have the final answer in mind prior to the report. Then they fill in the blanks as needed to make it work. If we could only do our cash flows the same way.